It was a surprise on Friday to hear reports that four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers seemingly came out of the darkness to visit the Pittsburgh Steelers’ facility on the South Side and sit down with the likes of owner and team president Art Rooney II, GM Omar Khan, head coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.
What isn’t a surprise is that things continue to drag out as the 41-year-old quarterback still hasn’t made up his mind on what he wants to do just yet.
The longer this drags out, the more annoying it gets.
For ESPN’s Chris Canty, who played in the NFL with the New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and Baltimore Ravens, he believes that even with a signing of Rodgers, the Steelers aren’t better roster-wise than the New York Jets were a year ago. He added during an appearance on Unsportsmanlike on ESPN Radio that he believes it’s more likely the Steelers have their first losing season under Tomlin than it is they win a playoff game with Rodgers in 2025.
“I gotta ask this question ’cause we’re just, we’re just kicking it around. From a talent standpoint are we sure that the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2025 are gonna be better than the New York Jets in 2024?” Canty said, according to audio via ESPN Radio. “You can’t make the argument that the receiving corps is better. Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams were pretty good receivers. You gonna try to make the argument with running back with Breece Hall and Braelon Allen in the backfield versus Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell? You can’t make the argument with the offensive line. Defense? The Steelers have Cam Hayward and T.J. Watt. Minkah Fitzpatrick is great. The New York Jets had All-Pro players on all three levels. They were loaded. They had Quinnen Williams, Quincy Williams and Sauce Gardner, amongst others.
“From a talent standpoint, we can’t sit there and say ‘Oh, well, Aaron Rodgers is going to a more talented team in the Pittsburgh Steelers than what he had to deal with in the last two years with New York.’ No, he ain’t. If you’re betting on seeing a different version of Aaron Rodgers, you are making a huge bet on Mike Tomlin and giving him the benefit of the doubt. And I don’t know how you can do that with Mike Tomlin specific to quarterback play with the revolving door that the Pittsburgh Steelers have experienced at that position over the last half decade.”
Canty has a good point. It wasn’t as if the New York Jets were devoid of talent. In fact, they went out of their way to trade for Rodgers’ favorite receiver in Davante Adams midway through the year, and despite the headline acquisition, the Jets were still bad offensively with Rodgers at the helm.
Sure, the offensive line was a mess and there wasn’t much of a run game to speak of in New York, but there wasn’t much offensively for the Jets until late in the year when things were all but over with. The Jets did have a great defense to lean on, which kept them largely in games, but it’s not like Rodgers would be going from the worst team in the NFL from a talent perspective, to a loaded one.
As Canty said, you could be betting on seeing a better version of Rodgers and the Steelers winning more games in 2025 than the Jets did in 2025, and that could be primarily due to the presence of Mike Tomlin. But it’s not as if Tomlin has been good with the quarterbacks in recent years since Ben Roethlisberger retired.
The Steelers have largely skated by while transitioning from Roethlisberger, and they’ve been close to teetering to having that losing season. Could that finally happen with a 41-year-old quarterback at the helm? It certainly could. That seems more plausible than the Steelers somehow winning a playoff game in the loaded AFC.
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